BELIEVE!
IN THIS SEASON FOR BELIEVIN’
“Believe!” That’s the instruction I’ve been getting every day this holiday season when I open my daily newspapers.
(Yes, call me old fashioned but I still enjoy getting information with my morning coffee the smudgy-fingered, old-fashioned, ink-on-paper way – the world-view via the New York Times, plus my local daily.)
Believe! That mildly insistent command (plus discount coupons) comes in the form of advertisements from Macy’s, the retail establishment.
It features the flourishy typeface “Believe!” imperative as part of a perennial holiday season advertising campaign harking back to its “Miracle of 34th Street” claim to fame and linking it to the seminal seasonal “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” story.
“Miracle” and “Virginia” are all about belief, of course, although the stories date back to a simpler time when daily papers were THE standard source of news. But “Miracle” and “Virginia” still resonate and have relevance – beyond advertising exploitation, I trust – in a Lady GaGa Christmas era.
(Google search results for “Macys” + “Believe” = About 3,000,000 vs. “Lady GaGa Christmas” = 2,850,000.)
But let’s get down to the headline matter.
In this Season For Believin’: I’d like to pose an important challenge – without making a demand on any spiritual conviction you may embrace, namely –
Do you know how your current beliefs were formed?
Are they yours? Or were they inherited?
Have you figured out what you believe and why you believe in it? Or are you accepting the opinion of someone else because you haven’t formed beliefs you can truly call your own?
And how powerful are your beliefs? Beliefs about yourself, other people, the way the world works, money, relationships, politics and government, a higher power?
These are complex areas. Wars are fought about beliefs and lives are risked and lost. Friendships can be gained and lost. Love doesn’t work without respect for the beliefs of loved ones. You can’t bring your best effort to accomplishing something you don’t believe in.
These are big, profound topics. You must think about them and wrestle with them. They lie beneath everything you do in life. Your beliefs may change and you’ll change with them.
And they should be continually “top of mind” for us because --
What You Believe Is What You Get
Consider this: What was your worst subject in school? Math? A foreign language? World history?
- Did you believe that you would never be any good at it?
- Did others “agree” with you?
- And the outcome was what?
Do the words “Self-fulfilling Prophecy” sound familiar?
TGIM TAKEAWAY: When you have a firmly held belief, your subconscious mind gets busy making that belief become a reality.
“You gotta believe,” NY Mets baseball player Tug McGraw said frequently as his team rose from 5th to 1st place in the 1973 National League pennant race. And he was quite correct.
The conviction of your beliefs can transform you. And it can transform others. And these transformations can be for good.
Or they can work against someone’s best interest – possibly your own.
Here’s how: There are usually dozens, if not hundreds, of self-limiting beliefs most of us have that prevent us from reaching the highest levels of health and happiness. And it’s all too easy to find someone else who willingly participates in this undermining of esteem.
We may be the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded by what others want from us, but it’s often done in a way that’s slightly under the radar. (And BTW: “Even paranoids have enemies.”)
Sometimes it’s not so easy to be sure what we “know” and “believe” and often even more difficult to discern precisely why we know and believe it.
It’s not just about Miracles, Virginia: Any time – not just at winter holiday time – is a good time for a little excavation down to at least one level below what “everyone knows.” Uncovering real knowledge on which to anchor your beliefs takes some effort.
Here’s a non-sectarian thought: One way to sort through the sentimentality of the season and get closer to facts and the “truth” of what you can believe is to apply what classic researchers call “the scientific method.”
TGIM ACTION IDEA: True scientific research begins with no conclusions. Real scientists are seeking the truth because they do not yet know what the truth is. They know what they suspect. But they don’t yet know what they believe. So they –
- Form a hypothesis.
- Make predictions for that hypothesis.
- Test the predictions.
- Reject or revise the hypothesis based on research findings.
TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: For starters, use this strategy to evaluate any belief you feel uncertain about. And if you run low in that category, reconsider long-held beliefs. Treat your quest as an experiment.
One item at a time, pick a belief you broadly imagine and accept as “true.” Choose to step outside of it. Test the assumptions made in support of it.
- If it really is true, then your belief and conviction in it will be stronger and more powerful for having applied this close scrutiny.
- If you find it is not true, that’s OK because in the process you’ll probably find another perspective that serves you better and more effectively.
Challenge yourself this holiday season -- and year ‘round – to find beliefs that become truths for you and allow you to put your virtues into action. Then resolve to monitor your beliefs and behavior objectively on an ongoing basis and to make a conscious effort to not instill limiting ideas in others.
All wrapped up: Take these steps and you’ll have given yourself – and all around you -- a transformative gift that keeps on giving.
Tied with a bow: This reminder will also be a gift to me this celebratory season. So every time Macy’s commands me to “Believe!” I will – in my own way.
Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
201-569-5373
P.S. “If we begin with certainties,” said philosopher/scientist Francis Bacon (1561-1626) “we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.”
P. P.S. Virginia O’Hanlon was the eight year old “Virginia” who, at her father’s suggestion, wrote to the New York Sun newspaper with her famous query, “Is there a Santa Claus?”Here’s a clipping of the original appearance with the famous response penned by Francis Pharcellus Church:
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